


Things Are Different Now

by AvatarAbby



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, Alternate Universe - Normal Life, Best Friends Squad, Bullying, Friendship, Gen, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:49:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23262745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvatarAbby/pseuds/AvatarAbby
Summary: Glimmer has a nightmare about the past and her friends are there to comfort her.*Mentions of Past Bullying and Depression*
Relationships: Adora & Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra)
Kudos: 11





	Things Are Different Now

“You know, it doesn’t matter if anything happened to you. No one cares about you enough to actually miss having you as a friend.”  
“Why do you always have to bring down the group? All you ever do it make about it about you.”  
“This is all an act. No one is this sad and pathetic all the time.”  
Glimmer had nothing to do but sit in a corner and cry. She thought she had moved passed this, the days were she only could get through lunch until she burst into tears. The friends who would treat her depression like a joke. The ones who would invite everyone in the group to a party right in front of her and just skip over her name without a thought.  
She never thought this would be how Adora and Bow would treat her.  
“You know, Bow,” Adora said as they sat at the lunch table, a mischievous look in her eyes. “Doesn’t Glimmer just have the weirdest taste. The music she listens to, the shows she watches, they all suck. Just like her.”  
“Totally,” he nonchalantly agreed, popping another fry in his mouth.   
Glimmer raised her head from the fold of her arms and spoke her first words to her friends all day. “How could you say that, Bow? Why are you acting like this.”  
“What!” Adora snapped. “Are you jealous that I stole your best friend?  
“Well, have you ever considered that you weren’t best friends at all? That you were just a cheap imitation of a person he settled for until I came along.”  
The whole table laughed in agreement, pointing at Glimmer and shouting their disappointment of her.  
Then she woke up in her room with a start, tears streaming down her eyes.  
The junior didn’t know what to think of the dream. True, things like that had happened to her in the past, but that was years ago, at a different school, with a different group of friends. Logically, she knew Bow and Adora would never talk to her like that.   
But it had felt so real, she almost considered hiding under the covers and crying her eyes out for the rest of the day.  
She immediately shrugged the thought off. No, she couldn’t just skip school whenever she was having a bad day. The dream had no basis in reality and it wasn’t going to stop her from living.  
That was easier said than done. Glimmer went to her classes, spoke when spoken to, gave input on the group projects. She fell into the familiar rhythm of getting through the day and nothing more.  
That is, until lunch time anyway.  
She sat in her usual spot across from Adora and Bow, the two already laughing about something that had happened to them in their previous class. They both beamed when they saw their other friend sit down, but Glimmer was too distracted to notice.  
“Hey Glimmer,” Bow started, “how’s your day going?”  
“The usual,” was all she could muster as a response.  
“Okay,” Adora jumped in, “I have to tell you about this really funny thing that happened in math class.” The girl in the letterman jacket continued on with her story, but all Glimmer could think about was the dream.  
Did those two really not want her in the group? In freshmen year, it was just her and Bow hanging out together, with Adora joining the group the next year when she transferred to Brightmoon High. Once they had all started hanging out, it had seemed that their little group had finally been completed. But was Adora actually just an upgrade of Glimmer? One that was smarter, prettier, and more athletic?  
“Glimmer,” Bow prodded, concerned, “are you doing okay?”  
She nodded, obviously lying.  
“I know,” the blonde lit up, “why don’t we all play a game!”  
“No!” Glimmer shouted, almost begging.  
The two across from her flinched back at her sudden outburst, then moved forward to investigate what was going on with their best friend.  
“Glimmer, what’s really going on? Come on you can tell us anything.”  
Before she knew what she was doing, the girl with the dyed hair spilled everything about the dream she had had the night before.   
“You have to know,” Bow said as he took her hand, “we would never think of you like that. You’re part of the best friends squad.”  
“You are so amazing,” Adora added, “how could anyone see you as less than who you are?”  
Glimmer sighed. “It’s happened before. That dream didn’t just come out of nowhere. I had a tough time in middle school. My friends started to hang out with different people, and I was asked to tag along. My depression was beginning to really flare up, so much that it was hard to just get through the day. Lunch was the time I would take to myself to just hide in plain sight, to be sad. The other girls thought it was funny. They played games about who could mimic m3 the most. I would laugh it off, but it really hurt.”  
Adora looked at her with such empathy. “That’s awful.”  
“I understand it’s in the past, I really do. I’m in a new school with new friends. But I still have this fear that things will go back to how they used to be.”  
Bow grabs her hand tightly and speaks with a sure voice. “Glimmer, as long as you have us, things will never go back to that. You aren’t something we settled for, you are who we want. We are friends with you because we want to be and because of who you are. An incredible, funny, angelic, person.”  
Adora smiled. “You make our lives more complete.”  
Those words brought a genuine smile to Glimmer’s face. Her life wasn’t perfect, far from it. But it was pretty great. She had amazing friends who would do anything for her and she for them. Together they laughed and cried and fought and made up. There was nobody else she’d rather spend time with.  
Yeah, she thought, this is pretty great.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this. This whole story is heavily based off of a dream i recently had and my life during middle school. It was pretty rough, but like Glimmer, I now have great friends who are my world. If any of them read it, I hope they now how much they changed my life for the better. And to anyone who may be going through a really toxic friendship or depression or both, I am proof that it does get better. It doesn’t seem like it right now, but you are so strong and there are so many beautiful things to live for, now and in the future.


End file.
